Video – kayakers surrounded by basking sharks off the Irish coast

At first glance this really isn’t for the faint hearted. A video shows a group of sharks swimming close to some kayakers off the Irish coast.

Thankfully they were basking sharks, which although are the second largest fish in the sea, are friendly and harmless.

That didn’t make the experience any less exhilarating for the kayakers involved who recoded the sharks and posted their video to YouTube.

The kayakers were members of the Foyle Paddlers club. They had gone out into the sea off the coast of Ireland’s most northern tip – near Malin Head, Co Donegal.

It wasn’t long before the shark fins started to approach them.

Sandra Fox was one of the kayakers in the video. She told UTV: “I think there was as many as seven of them in the water around us at one point. We spent about an hour in their presence – it was amazing.

“There were a few in the group who were quite nervous at first about getting too close. It was surreal, almost.